Kent Bush: Watching cartoons in Arabic while it rains

Thursday

Jun 30, 2011 at 12:01 AMJun 30, 2011 at 1:05 AM

If you’ve never been to Addis Ababa during the rainy season, you don’t know what you’re missing. It rains about a tenth of an inch and then stops. Then it rains again and stops. Then, there is a torrential downpour with pea-sized hail. And then, it stops. When you have a 7-year-old American son and a 4-year-old Ethiopian son trapped in a guesthouse, it can become an issue.

Kent Bush

If you’ve never been to Addis Ababa during the rainy season, you don’t know what you’re missing.

It rains about a tenth of an inch and then stops. Then it rains again and stops. Then, there is a torrential downpour with pea-sized hail. And then, it stops.

When it isn’t raining, the weather is great.

When you have a 7-year-old American son and a 4-year-old Ethiopian son trapped in a guesthouse, it can become an issue.

You find yourself watching "Dora the Explorer" (which doesn’t actually rhyme, by the way – but maybe I’m just grumpy) speaking Arabic to teach children to speak Spanish.

You can’t speak Arabic or Spanish. But you watch anyway because it exists.

"SpongeBob SquarePants" in Arabic is surprisingly just as good as it is in English.

Thankfully, later in the evening, some Warner Brothers cartoons come on and they are presented in English.

I thought I had outgrown Bugs Bunny. Nope. I love Bugs Bunny now more than ever.

We have been here for three days. We’ll be here for six more.

We have played soccer with other children at the guesthouse for hours. But we missed the main event. There was a soccer (futbol here) qualifier game between the No. 2 and No. 3 teams in the local league. We found out about the game about three hours before they played. I mentioned it would be fun to attend. But the game was sold out and the driver we were talking to said the stadium would be packed up to six hours before the game started.

Apparently a team called Coffee won because the main streets were filled with motorcycles and cars flying yellow Coffee flags and honking their horns constantly.
You would have thought the Oklahoma Sooners had won a national title in football.
We have also walked to a local grocery store a dozen times. As soon as we get back, I begin looking for a reason to return.

Outside that same store, I saw a man wearing a t-shirt that said “Barack Obama – Our new hero” emblazoned over a photo of Obama at his inauguration. I guess the "Rush Limbaugh Show" and "Sarah Palin’s Alaska" haven’t made it to the Dark Continent yet.
I’m also not good at house arrest.

Even with a brand new son, there are only so many blocks I can play with and balls that can be thrown and kicked before I need some external stimulation.

Did I mention that the communal computer the four families here share has a virus and I will be walking around Addis Ababa trying to find an internet café from which to file this column?

Did I mention that I am also not good at being out of touch?

Later this week, the action picks up. We let Dawit bid farewell to his friends and caregivers in the center where he stayed before we took custody. Thursday we meet with U.S. Embassy officials to finalize Dawit’s paperwork and receive his passport. Friday, we get to meet his birthmother as she says a final goodbye.

This boredom will give way to important appointments and then we will fly home with both of our sons.

When you think about the possible alternatives, two days after taking custody of a 4-year-old who speaks a little bit of three languages, boredom is an answer to prayer.

Dawit loves his new momma. He loves counting and singing his ABCs. He loves climbing stairs, climbing back down stairs, climbing stairs again and playing with his blocks. He kicks a soccer ball really well and has a pretty good fastball for a kid who has never seen a baseball game. We have seen nothing of the horror stories that are possible. But it has only been two days. There is still plenty of time for nightmares.

But for now, he is a bundle of hugs and kisses, counting and alphabets, and all the food he can talk us out of. He and Blake tickle each other and play ball together and act crazy like brothers should.

I would love to write more, but I have to go or I will miss the end of Bugs Bunny before I head back down to the store.